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Youth Ministry highlight: DYLC

Diocesan Youth Leadership Camp

Perhaps you have heard of our diocesan, teen leadership camp called DYLC? Diocesan Youth Leadership Camp, known as DYLC, has been running for more than 30 years. Recently, we committed our efforts to re-orient the focus of DYLC to making missionary disciples. In light of trends in youth culture and the rise of the “nones” and those either unaffiliated or disaffiliated with the Church, especially our youth, the need was pressing to do whatever we could to emphasize the need for missionary disciples – those who will go out and announce the Gospel of the Lord wherever they are. DYLC has been, and continues to be, an experience where our young people can become equipped to do just that, not only in their teen years but as they grow into adulthood as well. Take a look at some testimonies from a few teens and a couple of adult volunteers from this past summer’s DYLC and see for yourself.

“DYLC has brought me into a new dimension of my relationship with God. It has helped me to want and understand how I can be a missionary disciple through small things every day, and on a larger scale to serve God and others. DYLC has prepared me for missionary discipleship extremely well by providing me with a plan and the tools to spread God’s love! I would honestly say, without a doubt, that DYLC was the best week of my life!”

“DYLC has been a major component in shaping who I am as a missionary disciple. My relationship with God had grown so much stronger after such an impactful experience. DYLC exceeded my expectations about how incredible it is becoming a missionary disciple of Jesus Christ.”

“DYLC can be summed up with Jesus’ words to St. Teresa of Calcutta, ‘I thirst.’ This shows now how I feel about my relationship with God. I thirst for more, and I thirst to show others who Jesus Christ is. I now cannot wait to spread the Gospel and the truth to others, now that I have gone to DYLC.”

“The camp proved to me again that missionary discipleship is born quite readily within human hearts in an environment where people who share the same values are loved and welcomed and make the communal decision to trust each other.”

“DYLC offers me a chance to step outside my parish bubble and experience ministry in a fresh way. My job for the week is to help all the campers, but I get to focus on seeing God in my small group, and affirming who God has created and called them to be. It's a beautiful thing to have others by my side in ministry as we work toward the goal of building up missionary disciples in the week we are at camp.”

If these testimonies have inspired you, mark your calendar for DYLC 2019 on June 16-21. If you are the parent of a teen or a youth leader, consider sending those teens in your life to DYLC to help them become missionary disciples! Registration will be available in early 2019.

The March for Life

The Diocese of Lansing will be chartering buses for the pilgrimage to the March for Life on Jan. 18, 2019. This will be an opportunity for teens to put their discipleship into action, marching for the dignity of human life, especially the unborn. The March for Life is a great opportunity for our youth to go out and announce the Good News of the Gospel of Life to the world. We will leave on Thursday, Jan. 17, stay the night at Catholic University of America and return following the march, arriving back in Michigan very early in the morning on Jan. 19. Contact [email protected] for more information or to register.

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